“One in 6 teenager in the 10-19 age group suffers from mental disorders. 50% of mental health problems start at 14. “
It is the alarm launched by psychiatrists for the World Mental Health Day, launched this year by the UN and WHO on the theme “Young people and mental health in a changing world “ which was celebrated on Wednesday 10 October. Half of all mental diseases start at the age of 14, but in most cases it is not detected or underestimated, and therefore it is not treated. Maybe thinking that “you know, adolescence was difficult and complicated for everyone”.
Another frightening data-underline psychiatrists-is that suicide is the second cause of death among young people aged 15-29, exceeded only by road accidents. “We need prevention, funds are needed to invest in this area, specific programs in schools are needed to facilitate the recognition of all those ‘toxic’ factors that can encourage the debut and maintenance of psychic pathologies”. To say it is dr. Roberto Mezzinadirector of the Mental Health Department of the Trieste Health Authority and collaborator of the World Health Organization.
In Italy today about 8 million and 200 thousand young people between 12 and 25 years old live. Of these about 10% (Istat data) declares themselves globally dissatisfied with one’s life, friendly, family and health relationships.
This data observe the specialists, reports that an extremely significant number of young people is in a situation of emotional difficultyconfirmed by the prevalence, always around 10%, of depressive or anxious forms in this age group, so as to recognize that “depression is the most widespread mental illness among teenagers”. The experts of the SIP, the Italian Society of Psychiatry, are revealed, who meet in Turin these days (from 13 to 17 October), in a congress entitled ‘Mental health of the third millennium ‘.
It is to these 800 thousand young people that you must pay attention, facilitating the recognition of all those factors’toxic‘which can encourage the debut and maintenance of psychiatric pathologies.
“The psychic development of each individual – specifies Bernardo Carpiniellopresident of the SIP and director of the chair of psychiatry at the University of Cagliari-takes place in a continuous and dialectical relationship with everything that surrounds it, both as a micro-environment (i.e. the closest environment, consisting of the family and closest ties) and as macro-environment (the cultural climate, social and anthropological movements).
We must therefore imagine the path towards the psychic health As a process that develops in the context of external stresses that can lead to more or less evident effects, both in relation to their nature and intensity and in relation to the period of life during which they occur “.
“Digital natives – he says Claudio MencacciPast President of the SIP, director of the Department of Neuroscience at ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan-are exposed, compared to the boys of a few decades ago, to a significantly greater number of stimuli and, conversely, to a reduced number of spaces of emptiness and boredom. It is as if the brain was perpetually targeted by images, information, opportunities and requests. This condition certainly involves many advantages, since all these stimuli can implement the learning curve, but there is a cost. It is as if we had a brain perpetually under attack, which is rarely allowed to place itself in that condition of quiet which is called ‘resting-states’ “.
“The changing world” It is also the world of new abuse substances, with an increasingly varied offer and low cost of new psychotropic action molecules whose long -term effects are still little known, but whose consequences in the short term already appear extremely alarming.
“The substances of abuse – he still claims Carpiniello – They are real detonators compared to mental disorders: the increasingly early debut of bipolar disorder, which in 40% of cases today is between 15 and 19 years old, is partly related to the use of psychostimulants, while it has been highlighted by various studies that the use of cannabis, especially of the high -power one, also increases by 3 times the possibility of developing schizophrenic disorders in the predisposed subjects. In the face of all these risks, it is important to consider adolescence as a sensitive period, to be protected and protected, making the boys who show signs of psychic suffering can be helped in time “.
“Do not deal with the mental health problems of teenagers has as a consequence the continuation of these disorders to adulthood – also underlines the WHO – limiting in these subjects the opportunities to conduct a rewarding life and to provide their contribution to the workforce, families and society as a whole”.
There adolescent depression It is often identified in the first diagnosis in the study of the family pediatrician, from where often the path that leads to specialists and treatment often begins. It is well known that young people with depressive disorder They are often reluctant (like their families) to take psychoactive drugs, with the consequence that depressive pathology is often treated inadequately. In addition, it must be considered that a warning given in 2004 by the Food and Drug Administration (the US government body that deals with the regulation of food and pharmaceutical products), concerning the feedback of an increase in suicidal risk associated with the use of antidepressants, has further contributed in recent years to the restriction of the prescriptions of these therapeutic garrisons. The result of all this is that as many as 50% of depressed young people refuse pharmacotherapy, and among those who begin, at least half cannot maintain adherence to care for a period of time sufficient to enjoy their benefits.
Gregory Clarke, of the Permanent Center for Health Research of Portland, Oregon, claims that, in reality, “specialists have few choice options for the treatment of youth depression, and cognitive-comporting therapy seems to have now become a useful solution”.
In a study he conducted, more than 200 teenagers were monitored between 12 and 18 years, suffering from major depressiondivided into two groups: patients who had ceased drug therapy were inserted in the first group without undertaking other treatments, the second group instead included patients who underwent sessions cognitive-behavioral therapy. In doing so, the researchers found that, after two years of follow-up, the improvement of depressive symptoms was significantly faster in the group in cognitive-behavioral therapy compared to that of the control group.
Clarke concludes by stating that “the study shows that in the context of primary care, the setting of cognitive-behavioral therapy can be effective in depressed young people who refuse or interrupt pharmacological treatment, reducing the use of second level services such as clinics and psychiatric hospitalizations”.
According to what emerges from another study conducted by Nicola Wilesof the Center for Academic Mental Health of the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) e.pubbly on The Lancet Psychiatry, cognitive-behavioral therapy is clinically effective even after years from the end of treatment in depressed patients who have not benefited from drug therapy.
Sources:
- http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/04/18/peds.2015-1851
- http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lapsy/article/piis2215-0366(15)00495-2/abstract
